1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for transmitting live events to multiple viewing locations. Particularly, this invention relates to transmitting secure live events from multiple simultaneous sources and locations to multiple exhibitors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Although it is currently possible to combine multiple simultaneous live source of events and transmit to multiple exhibitors worldwide in standard TV or HDTV quality, it is very difficult and expensive to do so. A key source of the expense is the large bandwidth that such high quality signals require. At present, there are no systems which combine multiple simultaneous live source events and distribute to multiple exhibitors at cinema quality level.
In addition, for most practical uses of cinema quality events, the transmission must be made secure so that only authorized receivers are able to make use of it. At present there are no systems for distributing such live multiple source events to multiple exhibition locations that operate in a secure manner to prevent unauthorized reception of the transmission.
Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods for combining and delivering cinema quality live events from multiple sources in a cost effective manner. There is also a need for such systems and methods to enable such broadcast events in a secure manner. Finally, there is a need for such systems to operate in a bandwidth efficient manner. The present invention meets all these needs.